Ross William Hamilton / The OregonianPortland Mayor Sam Adams has scheduled a hearing Thursday for City Council consideration of participation in the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Two months behind schedule, the Portland City Council this week will consider its frayed relationship with the Joint Terrorism Task Force. The hearing begins at 2 p.m. Thursday and is the marquee item on this week's agenda.

Then, one day before the scheduled hearing, he pushed it back to March 10 "to finalize input from various stakeholders and issue a draft proposal for public input," according to a press release.

Then, two days before the March 10 hearing, Adams canceled it. In a statement, Adams' office said the mayor and staff "received significant new input from federal agencies on the mayor's proposal."

The topic was again rescheduled for March 17. But then Adams canceled that one. His staff in a statement said "federal agencies asked for more time to work through potential procedures that would govern Portland's work with the JTTF."

With that as a backdrop, Adams finally released his proposal last week. And it immediately was met with resistance from U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton and two members of the Portland City Council, commissioners Dan Saltzman and Nick Fish. Despite a seemingly clearer and firmer relationship than what exists now -- the City Council voted in 2005 to pull its officers from full-time involvement -- officials balked at language saying Portland Police could participate only in "full investigations."

Then city Commissioner Randy Leonard got involved. He had meetings last week with Adams, Holton and the ACLU of Oregon. Leonard said Holton wanted local police to participate in investigations that have a "criminal nexus." Leonard said he got the ACLU to buy into that language -- whatever it means -- and figured Holton would be on board, too.

Throughout it all, Adams' leadership is testing the patience of his colleagues.

Saltzman initially called for immediate action to rejoin the Joint Terrorism Task Force but, realizing he didn't have enough support, has followed the mayor's process, thinking at times they were close to being on the same page, at other times far apart. Fish, who typically plays the role of City Hall de-escalator, issued strong language (for him), saying Adams' plan featured a "fundamental flaw." Leonard at times has said he wouldn't support the versions of proposals he'd seen, but now seems to be doing the heavy lifting for the mayor. Commissioner Amanda Fritz has remained quiet throughout.